There's a lot packed into a few pages here, a nice little adventure to spring on your party when they are travelling and welcome the sight of a welcoming inn on a remote road...

The background lays out concisely why all thoughts of a quiet's night rest are out of the question. Whilst the background is quite specific as to names and places, it ought not to be too difficult to change them to fit in with your campaign world - all you need is a fairly wild forest on the borders of civilisation which has a road through it that sees at least some traffic (else why attempt to run an inn there?). A couple of hooks are provided if you want the party to have more reason than a routine rest-stop on their travels for being here.

The adventure itself is quite simple. The adventure opens with a bit of socialising with other guests and an opportunity to find out about the history of the establishment. The place used to be the home of a vampire, now dealt with... but somehow some of his spawn get loose in the night and the first the party knows about it is when other guests start screaming! Of course, as seasoned adventurers, they are the most suitable people to deal with the problem.

The inn and its immediate surroundings are mapped and described well, facilitating a sandbox approach in which the party may wander freely and interact with whatever they find. Note that the maps show secret doors and the like so will have to be modified before they can be shown to the players. However good room descriptions and details of who is where and what they are likely to do makes the adventure easy to run.

Overall a neat adventure with plenty of excitement - just when the characters weren't really expecting it! Moreover, it's a nice inn that could be used again (if it survives the night!) or, perhaps even better, before you decide to run this adventure. All the more startling if this is a regular point of call without any prior trouble...

If you are using the whole Dungeon of Terror and its outline plot, this set of map tiles depicts the heart of the 'mad mage' Infidus's personal quarters. There are ten rooms altogether, but the four big ones will attract curiousity and fair crackle with potential... traps, maybe, for the unwary or something quite unusual and intriguing.

There's a vast combat arena, complete with large statues of sword-wielding bald elves and ghostly images of demons. There's a libary full of books. And more... None of the current denizens of the complex dare come here, not the orcs nor the assassins.

The notes provided give some inkling as to what perils and prizes you may choose to place here, but of course if you have other things in mind it's easy to change them. This is an outline, a framework, upon which you can craft your own adventures rather than a ready-made adventure. You get the floorplan with doors and furniture and other bits and bobs - like the aforementioned statues - but it's up to you what those levers do, if that statue animates or whatever, let alone who or what might be encountered there.

The floorplans are provided as an overview showing where these chambers fit in the overall whole (assuming you want to use it 'as is') and then in separate sheets at appropriate scale for miniatures or tokens. By use of the 'Rule the Dungeon' button you can customise what is printed out - selecting square, hex or no grid and whether or not you want to display furniture or doors, for example. Conveniently, the three largest rooms can be printed out by selecting the correct tiles to have any one of them alone - the arena occupies eight tiles on its own - without getting the rest, if that suits your needs better. Maybe you don't like drawing floorplans (or struggle to scale them up for miniature use), maybe looking them over will spawn ideas for adventure that you can use. Whatever, enjoy!

In this installment of the massive Dungeon of Terror underground complex, you are provided with an area that encompasses one of only two entrances to the complex and a maze that is said to be haunted by the spirit of a minotaur which once was trapped there by Infidus, the (allegedly) insane mage who made this complex his home after driving out the dwarves who used to live and work there (or he may have found the place deserted and the dwarves long gone, records are unclear on this point!).

The maze is trapped with a complex series of teleports, although there is a way to neutralise them... if the party can find it! There are also some inhabitants who have started making their own modifications - although perhaps they are better adventurers than they are bricklayers - and who offer to show visitors the way through, for a fat fee of course.

In total, this area comprises some fifteen rooms and the passages between them... a LOT of passages! It is presented as an overview (which also shows this area's position in relation to the rest of the complex), and as a series of miniature-scale tiles you can print out and use on the tabletop. 0one's well-known mastery of PDF technology allows you to customise the features of the tiles via a 'Rule the Dungeon' button that lets you show or hide room numbers or furniture, have a square or hex grid or none at all, or decide how heavy you want the walls.

Although ideas are provided for who might be here and what they might be doing, it's left up to you to 'populate' your dungeon and decide what's going on there. Perfect if you don't care for drawing floorplans (especially if you like using miniatures) but have a good imagination to build a story around them.

What happens when a mage gets kidnapped? The opening fiction tells of a roadtrip with an unwilling participant... an edgy and intriging conversation that ends in a collision with a big rig... that wasn't an accident.

A compelling introduction to five loosely-connected plotlines, ready for you to weave into a chronicle that tells of the power of the Exarchs as it reaches into this fallen world and impacts on more than just the lives of the Awakened. Whilst interlinked, you can play some or just one of them, or even muddle up the order (although they work best in the sequence in which they are presented). The tales all tell of different powers of the Exarchs, and involve a collection of artefacts. However, whatever you decide to do, read through them first. Characters or clues from one episode may turn up in another, or you may wish to employ foreshadowing to draw interest along.

The Exarchs are all about control. The trick is, working out who they are controlling. In these adventures, your mages get to see their powers, their controlling influence, in action. These tales centre around a legend, that of the Dethroned Queen, who ages past was actually an Exarch herself but got kicked out... back to the fallen world, but bringing some artefacts with her. Some, amonst the Seers at least, believe that if you find these artefacts and study what little teachings she left, you can ascend to become an Exarch yourself... that is, if they actually exist. Not everyone is sure that they do, after all.

The five artefacts are, so legend says, a ring, a robe, a sceptre, a crown, and a throne. Whether these are metaphors or actual objects nobody's quite sure, but those who brave this chronicle will find out. Five artefacts, five separate (yet linked) adventures. Conspiracies whirl around, yet it's designed so that you do not have to spout yards of Exarch legend at your mages until they have a vague idea of what's going on, they just get... sucked in. Even the first adventure turns them upside down and sets them back on their heels, questioning much of what they thought they knew about the Awakened world. It begins with a stranger arriving on their doorstep and leads them into a moiling storm of politics, controversy and intrigue that wrenches at the very roots of their own cabal!

And that's just the first story! The succeeding ones drag them in deeper, raise many more questions than they answer. The stories are compelling and fascinating, even just when reading through them; although it's fair to say that you will have to put in some preparatory work, these are not 'run straight out of the box' adventures. It's worth your while, these will provide an excellent series of adventures to weave through your ongoing chronicle, working best if interleaved with other events and adventures - they'd be a bit too intense and maybe even unbelieveable if run back-to-back... better if your mages are kept wondering when (or even searching for) the next episode will turn up in their lives.

Thoroughly recommended, bringing legends and half-known truths to light as your mages delve into things that will become very real to them... but are they real? Venture here and you may find out!

The opening fiction is weird, sounding more like the rambling of a deranged mind than a story, but persevere and it will begin to make sense (especially once you realise part of it is the protagonist's own account of his Awakening... or is it?) provided you can cope with the background that is not only a crumpled paper effect but with additional scribbles that make it hard to read. The underlying theme is, I think, just how easy it is for an Awakened mage to fall into the trap of misuing his powers for what seems to be the best of reasons.

The Introduction continues with the concept that once you have Awakened, nothing is ever quite the same. To start with, the magical orders almost literally fight over you. In this book we learn about the Guardians of the Veil, what they have to offer and some of the secrets there are to be discovered. For it's all about secrets with these guys, some say they are the James Bonds of the Awakened world. They see their role as the protectors of matters supernal, guardians of magic itself... and to do that, they need to act like covert agents. It's an interesting - and potentially appealing - point of view. Secerts within secrets, being the arbiter of right and wrong... being a Guardian demands that special arrogance that states that you and you alone know what ought to be done.

Chapter 1: From the Reign of Atlantis launches into early history telling how from the very beginning some mages realised that there was a need to police magical activity and so took that duty upon themselves. This is not 'policing by consent', not something all mages see a need for or agree to, it's a self-appointed guardianship. The primary mission remains the same, to defend magic and mages from the unAwakened, the monsters - and themselves.

Next, Chapter 2: Masque and Veil looks at the core tenets of this order - ones which they do not reveal to outsiders, they are secrecy personified, nothing gets out. Even the various offices and customs of the order are rarely talked about with outsiders... so relish the chance to read about them and should you not be a Guardian of the Veil, don't let on that you have read them!

Chapter 3: Of Secrets and Spies takes things further, explores the process of initiation into the order and what life is like once accepted. It is no easy task to join the Guardians, they require dedication, the willingness to kill for them, a prepardness to die for them... as it is said, the first challenge for a would-be spy is to get the agency of his choice to hire him!

Then Chapter 4: Factions and Legacies demonstrates that, like many an intelligence agency, the order is riven with cliques and factions, petty jealosies and empire-building, no matter how uniform and monolithic they may appear to outsiders. Each Guardian mage has his own individual approach to the order's common purpose, and this is made manifest in the people with whom they associate and the legacies they pass on.

Chapter 5: Magic contains a collection of new spells and equipment, as well as training and techniques used by the order in its self-appointed task. Finally, an appendix provides fully-statted details of allies and antagonists that the Guardians might encounter, or indeed encompass...

Mages wishing to join the order become the Internal Affairs Division of the Awakened world. Perhaps your mages fancy that... or perhaps you reckon that they have attracted the attention of the Guardians (never a good thing) and will have to deal with whatever the order decides to throw at them. Plenty of potential here, plenty of ideas spawn even as you read these pages.

The opening fiction is a tale of a youngster growing up in a house where one parent is Awakened and the other is not, and worse, finds it difficult to accept. Sad truths... perhaps some one of your mages might have to face, or have as part of their background.

The Introduction explains the underlying concept of this book: magic as Art: a craft that must be studied, learned, honed, thought about and practiced... not mechanical cause and effect. Indeed magic often seems to have a will of its own. Presenting a scheme to classify magic in terms of the elements, it's at pains to point out that the classifications are more philosophical than anything else. Each element has associations with emotions and capabilities, and it is these that are reflected by the magic grouped together under it. In summary, will comes under fire, for intellect air is the proper element, with water for feelings and emotions and earth for the manifestation of ideas. Not everyone thinks this way, of course. Some mages like to visualise a temple with many halls, visiting different ones depending on what they are doing. Others claim that there are various fields of study within the whole that is magic - just as the academic study of say, history, might include the study of different periods, different places, or themes such as warfare or religion. But here we stick to the elements as a framework, with this book serving as a toolbox for how to go about using magic.

Chapter 1: The Way of Fire - Making Magic looks at that exciting area of how to devise your own spells. If creative thaumaturgy is your thing, this chapter will light your fire. The element of fire is associated with intuition, imagination and the higher will, just the tools you need to come up with innovative new spells. Here you can read about the 'rules' that make magic work: the Thirteen Practices, spell Aspects and the practicalities of creating a new spell.

Next, Chapter 2: The Way of Air - Spell Lore explains the look and feel of magic, how to describe what's going on, what can be felt and seen as a spell is cast. Seek inspiration here when you want to get creative when telling people what is going on when the magic starts to fly. There are lots of new spells here as well.

Then Chapter 3: The Way of Water - Magic and Being is about how magic interacts with culture and society, and as an extension of that, how mages get on with day-to-day life, and what sort of beliefs they might hold. There's also a discussion of the ethical aspects of magic (quite entertaining given that I teach the ethical aspects of computing in real life!). These are the sort of questions that the modern mage ought to wrestle with.

Chapter 4: The Way of Earth - Magic Manifested presents spells which are used to enchant items. There's also a look at alchemy and an array of salves, sprays and other substances that can be made with this craft, and a fair bit about soul stones.

Finally, Chapter 5: The Way of the Void - Greater Secrets takes you down paths best trodden with caution if at all... this is the Storyteller chapter and includes all manner of things from running antagonist spell casters to the legendary capablities of archmages and the dread Abyssal Watchtowers (which if you haven't heard of, you are probably very lucky!). Your NPC mages need to be as rounded, as knowlegeable as any player-character, but a bit of careful planning can make this less arduous than it might sound. There are lots of helpful hints and tips here.

Ending with a comprehensive spell index, this is a mage's vade mecum, a reference book or manual. OK, you don't need to read it to play an effective mage... but if you do study its pages, it will give your mage and his magic considered depths, a greater understanding of the Art he practices.

Every mage has his story of how he Awakened, generally involving an immersive vision of their Watchtower, a mystical and extremely personal experience. In the opening fiction, a group of young mages - who initially think they are facing certain death - share their stories and through them find what they need to save themselves.

Mages use symbols and imagery a lot to describe the Supernal Realms in ways that help them make sense of it. This begins, unknowing, with their dream of Awakening, but as time passes and they learn more about what they have become, their imagery becomes more focussed and they grow in understanding of what they see. This is not a book which a mage could read, but it is one their players should: to understand what their mage character makes of his experiences, what he understands and how he sees it. It's different for everyone, of course, and even people who are of the same Path won't view it in completely the same way, although there may well be similarities. For those who want to revel to the full in the mystical internal development that being an Awakened mage brings for their character, this book will enable them to share something of what their character, in his alternate reality of the game world, feels.

The book is made up of five chapters, each concerning one Supernal Path. Each contains lore, the history of that Path... and also indications of how mages on the Path view those who follow the other Paths. There's history, rites, notes on character creation, all manner of information to help you really get into the skin of your character. It's all legend and supposition - but things that your mage will have heard and read. Whether or not he accepts them as truth is up to you (and him).

The concept of a discipline - a vow taken and kept - is also introduced. In game mechanical terms, it provides the mage who keeps his vow faithfully with extra Mana. But a wise choice of discipline can shape a whole character, mark him out as distinctive. It's a bit like a religious vow or restriction - just like Mormons choose not to drink tea or coffee, or Jews to avoid eating pork. It's voluntary, and can be something that a whole cabal decides to adhere to, or just a single mage who feels the need to impose such a stricture on his life. Once taken on, however, it pervades everything and breaking it can cost a lot more than Mana - loss of relationships, of standing, and more. Take a discipline on with caution... and then role-play it to the hilt.

It's a bit difficult to know just when you should read this book. When creating a Mage: The Awakening character, you choose his Path along with everything else, yet in the alternate reality of the game, the Path chooses him rather than the other way around. The information about his Path will be acquired along with much more during his initial training, something most games do 'off screen' even when intending to start with new and inexperienced mages... mages who know nothing at all are not much fun to play, after all. Best they have acquired at least some knowledge of their new capabilities and learned a few rotes before the game proper begins. So sometime during the early stages of the game, as the character learns, so do you. Of course, that only applies for the first time you play the game. Next character around, you might well pick a different Path so have a whole new lot of stuff to learn... and try to forget some of the old, which a fledgling mage of another Path won't know! The age-old issue of character knowledge and player knowledge.

Yet for those who really want to understand their mage and play him to the full, this is an excellent resource replete with lore and beliefs and suppositions and half-known histories. Revel in it and use it to inform your role-playing!

What's Traveller without, well, some travelling... especially in space? High Guard is designed to provide a toolbox to empower every aspect of spacefaring in your game from designing and operating starships to using them in spectacular combat.

The Introduction begins by explaining where the name 'High Guard' comes from in the first place - it refers to a vessel standing overwatch in a position that is higher in a gravity well than other ships. That's a useful place to be, as if combat should take place when under the influence of a planet's gravity (or indeed that of any object in space) it's advantageous to be higher in it than your opponent. Harking back to the age of sail, one would speak of having the 'wind guage' when in a position where the wind conferred an advantage - here it's the 'gravity guage' instead, but a very similar concept.

Other topics explored in the Introduction cover terminology, the various types of space navies to be encountered - Imperial, subsector and planetary (assuming you are using the Third Imperium default setting) - and the concept of the Ship's Locker (standard equipment carried aboard all ships such as vacc suits and emergency equipment). It ends with a listing of different types of ship, including a useful size chart.

Chapter 1: Ship Design then gets down to detail of how the process of designing and building ships work. You can use existing designs 'as-is', modify them or come up with wholly-new ones... but will need to hire a naval architect to oversee the project. For those who want to have this level of control, there is a thirteen-step process to follow starting with creating the hull. It's a detailed process, one that will keep you happily occupied for a while and, like many design processes in this game, can become an end in itself, an enjoyable pastime rather than the more ulitarian designing of a ship for your next game. As well as cost, you need to keep track of tonnage and power requirements.

Next is Chapter 2: Weapons and Screens. This goes into detail about the weapons and defensive systems that can be mounted on a spaceship. There's a huge range of weapons that can be employed, and this chapter concentrates on what you need to know to install them: cost, power requirements, hardpoints to attach them and so on. Fighting with them comes later, never you fear! There's also a bit about defensive technology, mainly point-defence weapons and screens. Physical armour is covered in the construction chapter above.

Still looking at building ships, Chapter 3: Spacecraft Options gets quite interesting as it looks at how to customise your ship and presents a wide range of options from alternative drives and power systems to adding acceleration couches... and far more. Everything is described in terms of cost, tonnage and power requirements, linking it all back to the original ship design process.

Next, Chapter 4: Primitive and Advanced Spacecraft looks at vessels which differ from the norm presented in the previous chapters. These range from custom-built ships utilising the latest concepts and technologies to ones built by less-advanced species who have at least begun to reach for the stars. This is followed by Chapter 5: Space Stations, which looks in equal depth at space-based constructs designed for living in space rather than travelling through it. A similar thirteen-point checklist is provided for you to work through if you wish to design one from scratch, and there are also notes on some of the specialised space stations that are to be found out in the black.

We then take a look in Chapter 6: The Ship's Computer at the 'brain' of your space vessel in more detail. It's an interesting balance between modern advances in computing and the original Traveller concept of ship computers as being massive - a concept derived when real-world spaceship computers had about as much power as the average smartphone of today and computer facilities covered acres of land! There's information on the sort of programs you might need for your ship computer and how much they cost. Next comes Chapter 7: High Technology which explores some exciting ideas about what happens beyond TL15 (the upper limit covered by the construction rules presented so far). Perhaps you'd prefer not to use a Jump drive at all... well, here are details of alternate drive systems such as hyperdrives, warp drives, space-folding drives and even time drives allowing temporal as well as spatial travel. There are equally exotic weapons and screens and other equipment to browse through as well. Here it's a matter of what the Referee is willing to let you have or, if you are the Referee, how you want your universe to look.

OK, now we know how to design a ship from the keel up (and how much it will cost) but what does it look like? Chapter 9: Creating Deck Plans... hey, hang on a minute! We've lost Chapter 8! Seriously, there isn't a Chapter 8 in this book. Fortunately this appears to be just about the only error I've found, and all the indexing and hyperlinks work, so it's no real biggie... So, this chapter looks at how to draw deckplans that reflect the ship you have just taken so much trouble to design accurately. It's all a matter of scale, and relating the known tonnage of different elements of your design to the whole. Some talent at technical drawing or a good drawing package might help here, though.

This is followed by Chapter 10: Fighters. Never mind these big ships, what about those swarms of single-seater ships you see swarming about in science-fiction movies? For a start, they are generally more fun in a space battle than capital ships from a player perspective. There are some design notes, although the main process introduced in Chapter 1 is sufficiently flexible to construct fighters as well as larger ships. There are also notes about how they are used in combat and even how they are recovered by their mother ship when the fight is done.

Next is the bit you've been waiting for - combat itself - in the shape of Chapter 11: Capital Ship Battles. Whilst it is possible to use the core combat system presented in the Core Rulebook - which does work for ship-to-ship battles as well as for when people brawl - it gets a bit cumbersome if you want to stage a mass battle of capital ships. So here is a vastly streamlined system based on, but separate from, the space combat rules detailed in the core rules. It takes a while to set up, but once that's done the actual battle proceeds at a suitably dramatic pace.

Finally, there is the Jayne's Guide to Spacecraft of the Third Imperium (presented by the Travellers' Aid Society, of course). This provides a whole host of ready-made ships (using the design process outlined in this book) complete with statistics, price, running costs, crew requirements, external illustrations and isomortphic floorplans - starting with a single-seater light fighter and working all the way up to battlewagons like fleet carriers and dreadnoughts. There are a few interesting ones along the way - the Type S Scout and the Far Trader are still in there, which will be remembered by many Traveller players from previous versions of this game, a laboratory ship built on a ring structure, and even the Annic Nova... an alien craft which formed the basis of a classic exploration adventure back in the days of the Little Black Books!

Overall, this contains pretty much all you need to know to get travelling... with an elegant design system that's infinitely scaleable and flexible whatever sort of spaceship you need.

The classic image of a mage is a fellow in a robe with his nose stuck in a book. The Awakened may or may not go in for robes much - they tend to be a bit conspicuous in the modern world unless you are a LARPer or a member of a religious order (as an academic, mine only comes out once a year for graduation week!) - but books figure large in their lives. However much they may want to be active and hip, they need to study... but what is it that they read?

The opening fiction is (mostly) a mage's diary, in which he recounts a raid on some Seers to steal books on behalf of the Chicago Athenaeum and some really odd effects that centre around one of the books - it's all 'handwritten' and quite hard to decipher, but it's a good facsimile of what mages do most of the time - few grimoires are typeset, let alone available in e-book format, after all! It highlights how some books can be dangerous... and not just for the ideas contained within their pages.

The Introduction talks a little about books in general, then explains that this book basically consists of a collection of some eighteen grimoires each of which is ready to be dropped into your cronicle either to provide information that one of your mages seeks or perhaps as something an enemy possesses and could even be using against them. They can be tricky things, these books - one masquerades as a series of fantasy novels, another changes its appearance from time to time - whilst some of the items listed here are not books at all... one, for example, is a vinyl record!

Of course, the grimoire itself is only part of the story. Mages often need to do research even to find out which one contains the information they are after, or to identify a mysterious tome that has come into their hands. To facilitate this, each grimoire is accompanied by notes about how best to research it. There are plenty of other snippets that should spawn additional ideas about how to involve each of these grimoires in your plots.

The level of detail is quite amazing, and any one of these grimoires could provide the focal point for at least one if not a whole series of adventures. This work provides a novel way of using that archetypical tool of a mage, the book, as an integral part of what is going on in your chronicle and is well worth adding to your collection of resources.

The opening fiction tells a tale of a couple of mages chasing around... their minds? Spaces other than the real world, anyway, yet real enough to those venturing there. It's all a bit confusing, compounded by a heavy background with shadowy images that makes it hard to read in places.

The Introduction tries to explain further, that being Awakened opens access to many worlds that are contained within each individual's soul. Dreamquests and astal voyages are needed to tap their potential... and one hopes that somewhere along their training, lucid dreaming techniques are included. Others can participate in these trips inwards, and secrets can be discovered. The scope of such dreamquests is immense and limited only by the imagination, and it is intended that they should play a part in the chronicles you tell. The theme is that of introspection, reaching truths that are otherwise inaccessible... but they are not safe to travel, either.

First, Chapter 1: Shaping the Mists takes a look at astral magic - how does a mage's magic work there at all, and what spells and rotes will give practical help. As you might imagine, magic doesn't work the same way it does in the real world, and the results might surprise you. For a start the laws of astral space are quite different from the physical laws we are used to, here they become mutable and changeable - sometimes so much so that the term 'law' doesn't really apply any more! Fortunately magic does follow some rules, at least sometimes. Astral space is all about symbols and meaning, so if you can figure those out you have a starting point from which to start manipulating the world around you, however odd it might appear.

Then Chapter 2: Mapping the Impossible provides a guide to the three levels of Astral Space: Oneiros, Temenos and the Anima Mundi. It talks about finding your way around, and describes the wonders to be found. To start off, getting there involves going inwards, deep into your own soul, through there to your dreamspace and deeper still into shared realms. It always feels like a journey, however you get there and whatever you want to do once you arrive. It all begins with a mental exercise, likely different for every mage who makes the attempt. Crossing from your own dreamspace into the shared spaces that are the astral realms takes you outwith your own control and mental discipline.

Next, Chapter 3: Denizens and Things gets down and dirty with what might be found there. Needless to say, not all are friendly and some might be quite surprising! Even in the bits you might think are 'yours' there many be intruders and once you venture forth into shared space, it's likely to be crawling. So here we learn about daimons - constructs that mimic the dreamer and can manipulate dreamspace towards their purpose, which it to 'improve' the dreamer, generally in some ethical or ideological direction. However it may seem at the time of an interaction with your daimon, its intentions are benign, helpful even. Handled with respect, they can be useful guides. There are plenty of examples to give you ideas, but each daimon has to be custom-built for each individual mage. Naturally there are less friendly entities out there, and plenty of detail is provided on them as well.

Chapter 4: Dreamquests contains Storyteller resources with ideas and advice as to when and how you might introduced events involving the astral realms into your game. Basically, you can put whatever you want in there, a blessing and a curse at the same time... for in such complete freedom there lies the difficulty in nailing down precisely what you do want in order to tell the story you want to tell. There is a wealth of ideas here about the sort of stories you might prepare and how to go about it, retaining the weirdness and strangeness yet maintaining some kind of internal consistency that reflects the plot that will unfold. There's masses here to help you plan and run sessions involving a visit to astral space, essential reading if you are even contemplating going there. Finally, Chapter 5: Realms presents some actual places all detailed out and ready to visit... if you dare!

This sort of adventuring may not be for everyone - you may even find that not all of your group wish to engage in astral travel whilst some revel in it. It can however be powerful and thought-provoking, perhaps something to be used sparingly with reluctant travellers, characters who may only visit the astral planes once or twice in their entire lives; but which can be more frequently visited by those who enjoy the experience. It might also be useful when not everyone is available for a game session - those who are there engage in some astral travel, whilst time stands still for the absentees. Other groups may decide to avoid it altogether or make it a regular part of their mages' development and explorations of their own selves. Whatever you decide, here are the tools you will need.

Do you pay any attention to prophecy? One says there's a white dragon poised to attack, another says nothing but an icy grave awaits those who visit its lair...

Said lair is located in a high mountain range, the sort where the snow and ice never really goes away. Locals call it Krikk’s Range, to the rest of the world it's the Cloudtouch Mountains (or, of course, any suitable mountain range in your own campaign world). The map for the lair itself first appeared as part of the October 2001 offering in the Map-of-the-Week series on the Wizards of the Coast website (as of the day of writing, it's still there if you use the link in the PDF, but the bits you'll need are also included in the PDF in case they've gone by the time you look for it).

Now, Krikk the white dragon is a remarkable beast, she limits the area over which she holds sway and although she takes tribute in return for not eating the locals she doesn't ask for more than they can afford and has even been known to help protect them from barbarian raiders. Local lordlings have been unsuccessful in ousting her: heroes never return and mercenaries are bought off. Still, a nearby king alarmed by the prophecies he's heard, is now looking for adventurers... and that's just one of the hooks provided to get the party up there. There's also some information for parties inclined to gather it (or to access bardic knowledge, if a bard is around).

Although a map is supplied, only one chamber in the lair is described in any detail. Krikk is presented in great detail, not just a stat block but loads of information about what she'll do... and an impressive amount of material to assist you if the party is willing to enter into negotiation with her. There are also notes on her current projects and plans, her assistant and more, including a new magic item and a new spell.

It's a nice straightforward adventure for high-level characters, with the considerable support for those characters who want to try talking to Krikk a bonus. If it does come to a fight, though, there's ample material on how she will give battle too!

The backstory tells of a township living in harmony with a gold dragon, seeing to her needs in return from genuine protection (as in, actually defending them rather than running a protection racket!) until a marauding black dragon with evil intent came along... now the town is victimised by the black dragon and their gold defender is nowhere to be found! In this high-level adventure, it's up to the party to sort things out however they can.

Several hooks are provided to help you catch the party's attention and get them to the town, Silversands by name. This can be located anywhere suitable in your campaign world, you need somewhere vaguely coastal - anything from the seaside to a large river will do - that's near a mountain range and which has a nearby marsh as well.

The adventure itself is primarily site-based, the sites being Silversands itself and two detailed encounter areas. There's a reasonable amount of information provided about Silversands, but plenty of scope for you to develop it further. There's plenty of information to be had there if the party asks around a bit. If the party heads up into the mountains, random encounters - with monsters and people - are provided. Some of these will present quite a challenge in terms of combat, even for such a high-level party. Likewise, the nearby marshes have several random encounters for those who wish to visit them.

Both dragons - the gold and the black interloper - have established lairs which have been described although there's only a map supplied for one of them. There are also copious amounts of information about both dragons, to facilitate the characters meeting with them.

It's all fairly open-ended, the party can decide how to deal with the situation, which is not quite as straightforward as it appears. Some suggestions are provided for follow-on adventures, but it really depends how they handled this situation! It should make for an interesting challenge for a high-level party, possibly even a final fling before they settle down...

Part of the Dungeon of Terror series, this presents just part of the quarters of a so-called 'mad mage', Infidus the Black, who drove out the creators of this underground complex - a bunch of dwarves - and made his home here, conducting all manner of magical experiments... until an assassin sneaked in and put an end to him! Various other opportunists have moved in since (and nobody's quite sure what happened to the assassin) and the place is ripe for exploration. The part dealt with in this product is part of Infidus' personal quarters, and nobody has breached it... until now. This is despite this area including one of the main entrances to the underground complex.

This area consists of some 27 chambers presented as an overview and then as separate 'tiles' you can print out and use with minatures or other markers. Whilst the plans show all manner of intriguing things - from strange and cryptic markings on the floor to abandoned barrels - it's up to you to decide what they are (or were) and what their significance might be. But there's plenty to conjure with!

0one Games display their usual mastery of PDF technology, allowing you to customise your maps before printing by choosing various options like square/hex/no grid, grey or black fill, whether or not you want doors or furniture and so on. You can also pick which tiles to print from the overview, or just go to have a closer look before deciding.

If actually drawing dungeon floorplans is the bit you find difficult, all the work has been done for you. You just need to decide who lives there...

The opening story combines the intense political manoeuvering of the Silver Ladder with action, negotiation, power plays and high drama, a riveting read in its own right. The Introduction then draws out the main theme that concerns this book: scanctums. Even Sleepers have homes, places in which they feel safe. A mage's sanctum in so much more, a place to study as well as somewhere to rest, recharge his energies and far more. But in such places you find the bedrock of mage society, individuals and cabals. From there the greater assemblies arise, but the cabal is the core bastion against the Abyss and other threats, and the central point around which Awakened politics revolve. Assembkies and other groupings are made up of cabals, not divided into them. The cabal and the scanctum it uses is the mage's refuge, shelter, the place to return to when the work is done... or when something nasty is chasing you. Sanctum and Sigil, then, starts with the permutations of Awakened politics, from the inception of a cabal and the inter-cabal politics of a Consilium right to the mage's home - the sanctum. It provides details on the inimical opponents that move to hinder such institutions and the magical resources that are used to protect a sanctum.

First up, Chapter 1: The Polity explores core concepts about how a cabal is set up - will it consist of mages from but one order or the more modern pattern where individuals of several traditions join together. It looks at a cabal's protocols, the rules that govern members and the oaths that bind them and the sigil that is their symbol. Then it moves on to the Consilium, the forum where inter-cabal politics play out, and also the 'Lex Magica', the laws that govern mages and their use of magic.

Then, Chapter 2: Pride of Place looks in detail at the physical - and magical - construction of a sanctum. Essential reading when your cabal comes to set down roots. There's also plenty of information about Hallows, ley lines and Demesnes too.

Next, Chapter 3: Pylons and Cults examines how the opposition organises itself. Banishers of course, but also Seers, those lost souls that seek far past Watchtowers into the far depths of mystery - but what do they do and why are they a threat?

Finally Chapter 4: Storytelling explores how to actually run all those political machinations and make them really come to life for your players, get them to care about the outcome. There are also ways to get your cabal into trouble (if they don't manage to find it for themselves) and three sample cabals you can drop into your own chronicles: a Pentacle cabal, a Seer pylon and a Banisher cult. Ready-made rivals, opposition, threats...

This book makes for a fascinating read, but you do need to be well-embedded into Magic: The Awakening traditions and terminology to make the most of it. The material herein will aid you in building a deep, rich, vibrant world for your mages, one in which there is plenty going on and with opportunities for them to get involved (whether they like it or not) at every turn. Drag the more bookish mages out of their studies, make the muscular ones stop and think about the consequences of their actions, devise and run the local power structures of mage society with a sure hand... well worth reading if you want to scale the heights (and plumb the depths) of a living world and make your mages far more that mere spellchuckers but part of a real community that exists just out of reach of everyday Sleeper life.

Opening with some evocative fiction that tells the tale of a lonely girl on a nasty cold and wet evening, who finds strange people down back alleys she hasn't explored before and the promise of something more, then the Introduction lays out the nature of this work: a setting sourcebook for what is intended as the home and setting of Mage: The Awakening, the city of Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Even if you know Boston well, this is not quite the Boston you know. Building on the information provided in the core rulebook about the city, this book looks behind the scenes at the intrigues of the Awakened world and provides inspiration for many a chronicle, with plot ideas a-plenty. It is a place replete with history and rife with secrets… just the sort of place in which mages can flourish - or perish.

Chapter 1: Maps and Legends takes a look around, but it's not the sort of guidebook that a tourist would find useful. Starting with the local Native Americans, it's naturally a good place for those who would work magic, with ley lines in profusion and other features which any willworker might appreciate. Even once colonists arrived from Europe, there were those who picked up on the local characteristics and began to build their power. But sometimes the landscape itself fought back, and sometimes malign spirits were summoned by accident or intent, not all was well. Yet these early days were exciting ones and many seeds were set and organisations founded and alliances forged that began to shape the landscape of today.

Next, Chapter 2: Cabals presents some of the better-known groups of mages to be found in Boston, along with the politics and enmities that provide for alliances and rivalries. It's a place full of history, with several hundred years of cooperation and conflict setting the scene for today's Bostonian mages. Just as regular Boston society tends to the stiffly formal, so does that of the Awakened. A local mage may navigate this uptight society with ease, but a newcomer will find it difficult, baffling even. Mages who Awaken in Boston are welcomed and nurtured, shown around and properly welcomed by exisiting mages - whilst this is a benefit, it can drag a fledgling mage into local politics before he's really ready or has even had a chance to decide where he stands. There's plenty of detail here, with many groups for mages to join or to oppose, people to ingratiate themselves with, who might become trusted friends and mentors or bitter enemies. Absolute heaven for those who want to play a social game jam-packed with intrigue and political manoeuvering.

Then Chapter 3: Renegade Mages takes a look at some local inhabitants who do not fit into regular arcane society. There are quite a few Banishers - perhaps stemming from the city's Puritan past - who are presented in considerable detail ready to come after your mages. Story ideas are littered through this book, and there's a delightful one here: an old Chinese mage who rarely practises magic these days has just realised that a young relative has not only Awakened but taken up with the Banishers, so to whom will he turn for help? There are other individuals and groups here too. The Scelesti use their magic to their own unsavoury ends, and others follow their own agendas as well. And then there are the Sleepers. Some of them can prove problematic too - there's an overly-curious journalist, for example... be cautious how you deal with her!

This is followed by Chapter 4: Off the Map which explores local spirit realms and other places of mystery. As you can imagine from such a historical place, there are plenty of locations that resonate, and this chapter provides even more plot ideas - overt sidebar 'story hooks' and those that spring to mind as you read over the entries here.

Finally, Chapter 5: Beast of Burden provides some plot to get your adventures in Boston off to a flying start. It's aimed at a young cabal yet to establish themselves (but could be run with more experienced mages if you beef the antagonists up a bit), with a Tibetan student asking for help in combating a monster he says ate his master when an experiment went wrong. Taking the action from the docks and through the streets of the city, there's plenty of mythology to explore as well as fights to be had - a good adventure to get the cabal involved in Boston society as they aren't the only ones interested...

Boston makes a good base for those who want a political game, yet there is plenty of scope for people who prefer more direct action and even those who wish to pursue a scholarly approach to their magic. Indeed, there's something for everyone here... all rooted in the fascinating city that is Boston.